SA dad sentenced to 40 years in beating death of emaciated boy

Charleston Williams, seen in a Dec. 29, 2012 booking mug provided by the Bexar County Sheriff's office, was arrested Friday and charged with injury to a child in the death of his son Josiah Williams, 5.

Charleston Williams, seen in a Dec. 29, 2012 booking mug provided by the Bexar County Sheriff's office, was arrested Friday and charged with injury to a child in the death of his son Josiah Williams, 5.

Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office / Bexar County Sheriff's Office

Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office / Bexar County Sheriff's Office

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Charleston Williams, seen in a Dec. 29, 2012 booking mug provided by the Bexar County Sheriff's office, was arrested Friday and charged with injury to a child in the death of his son Josiah Williams, 5.

Charleston Williams, seen in a Dec. 29, 2012 booking mug provided by the Bexar County Sheriff's office, was arrested Friday and charged with injury to a child in the death of his son Josiah Williams, 5.

Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office / Bexar County Sheriff's Office

SA dad sentenced to 40 years in beating death of emaciated boy

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Before he was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday, a sobbing San Antonio man asked the court and his family to forgive him for not protecting his 5-year-old son, Josiah Williams, who was beaten and so malnourished he weighed 38 pounds at the time of his death.

“I’m asking for their forgiveness. I wasn’t the father I was supposed to be. I’m sorry,” Charleston Williams told Judge Ron Rangel through heavy sobs before he was sentenced to prison. “He was my son! He was my son!”

Williams agreed to a plea deal that would cap his sentence at 40 years in the death of Josiah Williams, who was found bruised, emaciated and unresponsive Dec. 27, 2012, at the home he shared with his father, stepmother, half sister and stepbrother in the 3900 block of Gayle.

His eyes were black and swollen shut and his body showed multiple injuries that were in various stages of healing. The child was said to have been kept in a closet, away from the other children. Adults did not feed him, take him to school or the doctor for care.

Charleston Williams was the third defendant accused in the boy’s death. His wife, Crystal Williams, 35, was sentenced to life in prison in June 2016. Her mother, Gloria Proo, 53, was tried, convicted and sentenced in September 2017, to 88 years in prison for her part in the child’s death.

Rangel presided over all three cases in the 379th state District Court.